re: Minimum wage battle is going to destroy small businesses!

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Why do all wages have to be livable? Most of us have had plenty of jobs for extra money at various points in our lifetimes. Under no circumstances did they constitute livable wages. What changed?

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A few things.

We started requiring college degrees for jobs that simply don’t need them.

Older folks have stayed in positions that workers would move into through promotion because of the increase of cost of living and retirement that has likely been hit by multiple recessions. That’s prevented your usually upward mobility into jobs with livable wages.

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Why do all wages have to be livable?

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They don't.

But if you are running a business and you need someone to work 8+ hours a day, but don't have enough room to pay them to live on that job alone, then maybe you don't have the budget to hire someone and you should do it yourself.

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Why do all wages have to be livable? Most of us have had plenty of jobs for extra money at various points in our lifetimes. Under no circumstances did they constitute livable wages. What changed

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The cost of living. The goal should be to lower that first, but burying our heads in the sand and seeing how the disparity between income and costs over the last 40 years is leaving a large portion of this conversation off the table.